A class-action filed in Manhattan targets Compass's 80% market grip on NYC rental listings
Two New York City renters have filed a federal class-action lawsuit against Compass, Inc., accusing the residential real estate giant of monopolizing the city's rental market and artificially driving up rents. It is the first lawsuit of its kind since Compass completed its $1.6 billion acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate.
Peter Castaneda and Haley Gelfand filed the complaint on August 19, in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. The suit claims that Compass — which through its Anywhere Real Estate acquisition absorbed Century 21, Coldwell Banker, Corcoran, Sotheby's International Realty, ERA, and Better Homes & Gardens — now controls an estimated 80% of rental unit listings in New York City.
That market concentration, the plaintiffs allege, has been weaponized to "intentionally cause an existential surge in the price of rental unit-specific apartments."
The complaint, brought under the Sherman Antitrust Act, New York's Donnelly Act, and unjust enrichment claims, also alleges that Compass leadership directed agents in July to pull rental listings from Zillow-owned StreetEasy, a move the plaintiffs say further constrained the already-depleted supply of available apartments.
Castaneda and Gelfand each signed leases for $5,270 per month, which they claim are artificially elevated.
"New York City's affordability problem has escalated from a challenge into a crisis," Blake Hunter Yagman, the New York-based attorney representing the plaintiffs, told Realtor.com.
"Our lawsuit aims to restore competition so that renters have full access to the supply of available apartments across the city."
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Congressional pressure builds on both flanks
The lawsuit arrives as both chambers of Congress are pressing Compass on its business practices. In July, Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI), chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, sent letters to Compass CEO Robert Reffkin seeking a hearing on Capitol Hill.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, followed with a letter of her own, setting an August 21 deadline for Compass to respond to her concerns about its Private Exclusives listings program and its partnership with Chicago-based Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED).
In that letter, Warren warned that the arrangement "threatens to create a two-tiered housing market where insiders pay for exclusive access to housing inventory and market data, while everyone else is shut out."
New York Attorney General Letitia James has reportedly been investigating Compass's conduct since June 2026.
Read more: Compass sues NWMLS, citing monopolistic practices and seller harm
A rental market already under pressure
For mortgage professionals, the lawsuit underscores what many brokers already know: the path from renting to buying in New York has rarely been steeper.
The Realtor.com New York City Rental Report for Q2 2026 showed the median asking rent hit $3,707, up 4.6% year-over-year and the highest on record. That figure represents a 30.5% increase from 2019 levels, nearly double the 16.4% gain registered nationally over the same period.
NYC renters trapped as the rent-to-purchase gap hit a record high in the first quarter of 2026, with the spread between what existing tenants pay and current asking rents surpassing $1,750 a month in the city.
Renters locked into below-market leases face steep cost increases when they move, a dynamic that keeps would-be first-time buyers anchored in their apartments long past their financial readiness to purchase.
If the court certifies the class-action request, the suit could cover any renter of a non-rent-stabilized, multifamily unit in the New York metro area from August 1 onward.
With the NYC rent freeze policy threatening to push free-market rents even higher, the pressure on unregulated inventory — where Compass's alleged market dominance is most acute — may only intensify as the case proceeds.
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